Quantitative text analysis and the study of EU lobbying and interest groups
Quantitative text analysis and the study of EU lobbying and interest groups
Interest groups’ policy position documents constitute an important data source for estimating their policy positions and lobbying success. We examine applications of quantitative text analysis to research these documents in the context of the European Commission’s open consultations. We show a considerable degree of incongruity between this method’s assumptions and the text characteristics of EU position documents. We examine how these incongruities affect the validity of position estimates and conduct an empirical analysis of documents submitted in one consultation on CO2 car emissions. We compare estimates derived on both quantitative and qualitative content analysis and find relatively limited correspondence between the two. These observed differences matter substantively: they result in different findings concerning levels of interest groups’ lobbying success.
Content analysis, European Union lobbying, policy position estimates, preference attainment
429-455
Bunea, Adriana
35890bfe-2932-48ee-aef8-4a393a42eed1
Ibenskas, Raimondas
160594d0-2151-4be5-8d77-90418186dbc1
September 2015
Bunea, Adriana
35890bfe-2932-48ee-aef8-4a393a42eed1
Ibenskas, Raimondas
160594d0-2151-4be5-8d77-90418186dbc1
Bunea, Adriana and Ibenskas, Raimondas
(2015)
Quantitative text analysis and the study of EU lobbying and interest groups.
European Union Politics, 16 (3), .
(doi:10.1177/1465116515577821).
Abstract
Interest groups’ policy position documents constitute an important data source for estimating their policy positions and lobbying success. We examine applications of quantitative text analysis to research these documents in the context of the European Commission’s open consultations. We show a considerable degree of incongruity between this method’s assumptions and the text characteristics of EU position documents. We examine how these incongruities affect the validity of position estimates and conduct an empirical analysis of documents submitted in one consultation on CO2 car emissions. We compare estimates derived on both quantitative and qualitative content analysis and find relatively limited correspondence between the two. These observed differences matter substantively: they result in different findings concerning levels of interest groups’ lobbying success.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 13 April 2015
Published date: September 2015
Keywords:
Content analysis, European Union lobbying, policy position estimates, preference attainment
Organisations:
Politics & International Relations
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 386718
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/386718
ISSN: 1465-1165
PURE UUID: 84d98e9b-07da-41ea-8184-72041f8ecf7d
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Date deposited: 03 Feb 2016 15:01
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 22:37
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Contributors
Author:
Adriana Bunea
Author:
Raimondas Ibenskas
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